If you could walk into the mind of a musician performing on stage, what would the scene look like?<\/p>\n
It depends, of course, on the musician. And on the piece.<\/p>\n
But suppose that the musician is Mae Cooke \u201923E, \u201923, a senior from Glastonbury, Connecticut, who this spring will earn two degrees from the University of Rochester<\/a>: a bachelor of music in harp, which they have studied at the Eastman School of Music<\/a>, and a bachelor of arts in studio arts<\/a>, which they have studied in the School of Arts & Sciences<\/a>. Imagine, too, that the piece they are performing is Odyss\u00e9e<\/em> for solo harp, by Caroline Lizotte.<\/p>\n Cooke performed Odyss\u00e9e<\/em> in the spring of 2022 for their performance jury, annual stepping stone in which Eastman students perform before a faculty panel. Reflecting on that experience, Cooke posed a question: What if, as they were performing the piece, \u201cpeople could see what is going on in my brain? What if I could make that into a physical thing?\u201d<\/p>\n Cooke brought the idea to fruition as their senior thesis project in studio arts.<\/p>\n
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